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Hickory Crawdads vintage ballcap

In 1993, an instant classic was born for minor league ballcaps. While many might think that Conrad the Crawdad is a hokey mascot, I'm a complete supporter of this cap. Upon the team's relocation to Hickory from Gastonia, they changed their name from the Rangers to the Crawdads and thusly switched from being an affiliate of the Texas Rangers to the Chicago White Sox.

The mid-1990's was a new golden era for the White Sox from a marketing perspective when you consider the wild success of this cap as well as the oft-photographed Michael Jordan during his stint with their Double-A affiliate, the Birmingham Barons.

I can't say with any certainty that the Nashville Sounds or Vancouver Canadians made as much of a splash as the other two aforementioned teams but I wouldn't mind owning a cap from either one of those clubs. These days, the Crawdads are back to being an affiliate of the Texas Rangers but I'll always remember them as an affiliate of the White Sox.

I'm really glad that I've got this cap though because it was produced before New Era began embroidering their flag logo to the wearer's left side of every MILB cap.

This cap features inside tags that are similar to some MLB caps made by New Era so perhaps there is someone out there with a "Rain Man" skill set for remembering what years New Era made caps with certain inside tags! Perhaps some sort of clue is that the "size tag" is only half-stiched onto the inside of the sweatband but it also







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